Pottstown Borough Manager Mark Flanders looks ahead to 2013

POTTSTOWN — Although he’s the new borough manager, you can’t exactly call Mark Flanders new to borough hall.

After all, he’s been a borough employee for 33 years.

In November, Flanders, 55, began a new chapter in the book of his service to Pottstown, the chapter that has him basically in charge of everything.

Until April, when his retirement becomes official, he remains Pottstown’s police chief.

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At the same time, he is also Pottstown’s new borough manager — new since Nov. 13.

He will do both jobs for $120,000.

Praising him for his intimate knowledge of the operations and personnel at borough hall, borough council unanimously picked him to replace Jason Bobst, who left the post in August, after three years in which, Flanders said, the borough was put back on a sound financial footing.

Beginning the year with a budget that does not raise taxes — a feat Flanders attributes to Bobst and Finance Director Janice Lee — is a nice way to start a career as a borough administrator, Flanders acknowledges.

Asked if a repeat is in the works for 2014, Flanders smiled his tight-smile and said there are no guarantees “but we will strive” to reach that goal, he said.

“I’d like to see another budget like that, sure,” Flanders said.

Among the primary goals Flanders said he has for the coming year and beyond are those of establishing an esprit de corps among the employees, built on a core value system that emphasizes communication and customer service.

“I want to be able to identify when we are doing the job well and expand on that, and to be able to identify where we can do a better job,” he said during an interview last month in his new office.

One of the ways in which he would like to see the borough become more customer friendly is in places where the public — bill payers, taxpayers, contractors and developers — interact directly with the borough staff.

“One of the mantras I’ve lived by is everybody should be treated the way I would want my mother, my father, my sister, my brother, my wife, my children to be treated,” Flanders said. “If I’m not treating others that way, then I shouldn’t be interacting with them, I should be doing something else.”

It is only when that is the general public’s experience, repeated multiple times, in its dealings with the borough that perceptions about the borough will change, Flanders said.

“You want the community to be able to trust, that in the end, they’re going to get quality service, no matter what. They’re going to get treated fairly. And it’s that trust relationship, that comes from that repititious, continuous, doing it right every time” that Flanders hopes to build.

Part of that may happen via “social media,” Flanders said.

Already the borough is in the midst of a redesign of its web site, and Flanders said he hopes to soon communicate with residents and taxpayers via Twitter and Facebook accounts.

“We don’t do a good job of telling our story and getting customer feedback and this will help,” he said.

For example, Flanders said, many people do not realize the huge impact, and huge potential, of recent successes in attracting new businesses to the borough — places like Sly Fox Brewery in the Circle of Progress and VideoRay on High Street.

“Those things are huge, huge,” Flanders said.

Also huge, Flanders said, is the impact and responsibilities of maintaining and operating the vast water and sewer treatment.

“There’s a big learning curve for me on operations,” Flanders said. “Fortunately, the background I had before I got into law enforcement was Sanders and Thomas (engineering firm) gave me a leg up in terms of understanding processes, being able to understand a drawing, look at it and say ‘OK, I get it,’” Flanders said.

“I had limited knowledge of what the authority brought to the table and I had no idea until I got my hands dirty on it how huge that operations is,” Flanders said.

The manner in which the authority is now slowly increasing rates to set aside money to pay for planned capital projects — $8 million over the next five years — without borrowing money is an example the borough should follow as well, Flanders said.

Despite some good financial news in the borough hall re-financing through a capital loan that will pay for a new borough garage, Flanders said he would like to see the borough do more of the kind of advance planning that the authority has undertaken.

“The authority is a good example of short- and long-range planning,” he said. “You walk into the authority, you look at the plans, you know what projects are coming forward to improve that operation.”

He added, “take that capital plan, and flip it around and do the same thing for goal planning, and that’s the concept — constantly update, constantly move forward. Attain a goal, move on to the next goal,” something he would like the borough to begin doing as it plans for the 2014 budget, “to the point where you can look five, 10 years down the road. That’s where I’d like to be.”

Not surprisingly, Flanders has a few personal goals as well as those for the borough, and one of them is to spend the next 10 years where he is now.

“It’s up to the will of council. It’s up to me to do a good job, the right job, and we’ll see where it goes,” he said. “But I’m in it for the long haul.”

About the Author

Evan Brandt has worked for The Mercury since November 1997. His beat includes Pottstown, the surrounding townships and the Pottstown and Pottsgrove school districts, as well as other varied general topics like politics, the environment and education. Reach the author at ebrandt@pottsmerc.com
or follow Evan on Twitter: @PottstownNews.